


When the End is Near, It's Time to Fight

by flipflop_diva



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-14
Updated: 2011-08-14
Packaged: 2017-10-22 14:35:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/239097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flipflop_diva/pseuds/flipflop_diva
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With what seems like the end of the world approaching, Harry, Hermione and Ron make a starling discovery: a group of strangers that just might be the answer to their salvation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When the End is Near, It's Time to Fight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pie_is_good](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pie_is_good/gifts).



> I had a really hard time with this, and it didn't come out quite like I had planned. In the end it's a little less angst and a little more humor. I hope you like it anyway!

It was the sound of the world ending. Or at least the sound of what Harry imagined the world ending would sound like.

They stumbled through the halls, navigating the familiar twists and turns that no longer seemed familiar as best they could. Stone poured from the ceilings and the walls. The entire castle shook beneath their feet. Lights from a source they hadn’t yet determined filled the air.

But it was the sounds that were the worst. The sounds of pain, misery, horror, and death. The screams and the cries all around them were filled with such anguish, such despair.

The terror in each wail pierced Harry through the heart, but there wasn’t time to stop, to search for the source of the cry, to try and figure out how to help each individual person. Instead, they trudged forward as best they could.

He grabbed Hermione’s hand tighter as she tripped over something and fell to her knees. He could feel her trembling as he stopped to help her up. He could hear Ron’s whimpers close behind, and he felt better knowing both of them were there with him.

They were getting close now. He could see their destination up ahead. Just a few more steps. Even though Harry still wasn’t convinced that this would help. It really made no sense to him. But Hermione was insistent.

So there they were. The Hogwarts library.

Harry, Ron and Hermione slipped inside.

And immediately came to a halt.

Books were scattered everywhere, shelves having slammed into one another because of the force of the tremors. It looked like a war zone, but then, so did most of Hogwarts at this point in time.

Hermione gave a soft cry beside him, almost as though the sight of the destruction of some of the books was physically paining her.

“I still don’t get how the library is going to help us stop He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named,” Ron mumbled behind Harry and Hermione.

Hermione turned on him with a look of indignation. “How many times do I have to tell you Ron Weasley? This is not Voldemort doing this.”

“Don’t say his name!” Ron cried. “And how do you know?”

“For heaven’s sake, Ron!” Hermione shrieked, exasperated. “Since when can Voldemort open a huge hole in the ground and drag everything down into it? Or raise … demons, or whatever those were we saw … from the dead?”

Ron was not convinced. “He is all-powerful,” he muttered darkly.

“Not that powerful.”

“And do you know this for a fact? I bet you sat down with him for tea and discussed this? And he …”

“Alright, alright, stop it!” Harry cut in, stepping between his two friends. “Neither of you are helping.”

Ron scoffed and looked indignantly at Harry. “I was just trying to suss out how the library is going to help.”

“Er …” Harry didn’t have an answer for that. He turned to Hermione the same time a loud noise echoed through the air, almost bouncing off the very walls, and the castle was once again shaken to its core. The three of them were tossed to the ground as another collection of books from a shelf above them came rocketing down.

“Bloody hell,” Ron moaned.

“Is everyone okay?” Harry asked, pushing himself to his feet, and then stopped.

Standing just a few feet away was a group of people he never expected to find in the Hogwarts library. A quick count confirmed there were five of them. They had to be Muggles. But where had they come from? And how did they get here?

Hermione and Ron saw the strangers the same time Harry did, and without a word, three wands were drawn, fingers clenched tightly around them.

There was nervous laughter from someone in the other group. “Please tell me those aren’t real,” a male voice said shakily.

“Well, honey, I’m sure they are,” a female voice whispered back.

It was then that Harry’s eyes focused on something even odder than the strangers themselves — in the hands of the blonde girl in front, clenched tightly and in a way that was obvious she was ready to use it, was a wooden spade.

Harry frowned. Ron was not so subtle.

He pointed at the spade. “Your weapon is a piece of wood?” he said in disbelief, his own weapon momentarily forgotten.

“Ron!” Hermione scolded, but the blonde girl frowned.

“It’s a stake,” she said. “I’m the Slayer.”

Harry, Ron and Hermione stared.

“The what?” Harry said.

“The Slayer,” she repeated, as though just saying it would be enough to make them understand.

They continued to just stare at her. She sighed.

“The Slayer,” she said again. “One girl in all the world who is destined to kill vampires and other demons who walk the earth, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”

“You kill … vampires?” Ron repeated.

“Yes,” the girl said, as though it was obvious.

“Like for a job?”

“Sort of?”

Ron’s brow furrowed in confusion. “So you think vampires are doing this?” He pointed to the destruction around him just as the castle shook again.

This time the older guy in the group, a professor-looking sort with glasses, cut in. “Well, no,” he said, reaching up to take his glasses off and wipe them on his shirt. “Not vampires. But demons.”

He must have noticed the blank looks on their faces because he continued. “We’re not really sure yet. But our sources say this library holds the answers.”

It was as though he just told them he held the secret to eternal happiness. Hermione’s face lit up.

“Libraries hold all the answers!” she beamed. “I’ve been trying to tell these two that for ages!”

Harry ignored her. “Who are you people?” he demanded.

The older man answered. “I’m Rupert Giles,” he said. “This is Buffy” — pointing to the Slayer — “Xander, Anya, and Willow. Willow is a witch.” He said this last part almost proudly, as though they should be impressed.

“Yeah, well so’s Hermione,” Ron scowled.

“And who are you?” asked the girl called Anya.

“Why should we tell you?” Harry started, but Hermione was already answering.

“I’m Hermione Granger,” she said. “And this is Ron Weasley and Harry Potter.”

There were no signs of recognition when she said Harry’s name. Harry was at least grateful for that.

Hermione was still talking. “So you know what is happening here then?”

“Not exactly,” Giles answered. “But we think we can help. We just need to do some research first.”

Hermione beamed. “We will do whatever we can to help!” she said.

“We will?” both Harry and Ron asked in unison.

She ignored them. “We will. If it means stopping this — whatever this is that is going on out there — then we are all in.”

“It does,” Giles said. “And we would be very grateful.”

“We would?” asked Anya, but Giles ignored her.

“Then we’re in!” Hermione said brightly. She turned to Harry and Ron.

They both sighed heavily. “Fine. We’re in.”

“Brilliant!” Giles said. “Just brilliant!”

And in fact it was. Because if there was one thing stronger than love, or magic, or superpowers, it was the power of the Slayer combined with the Chosen One.

The world wouldn’t know what saved it.


End file.
